Washington, d. C. Im fredricka whitfield. We begin this morning with the apocalyptic destruction in hawaii, the deadliest National Disaster in state history. At least 80 people are dead. And thousands more displaced from the wildfires. And now, rescue crews are bringing in cadaver dogs to help search what is left of burned buildings. Devastation from the lahaina fire, costing an estimated 5. 5 billion am in mountainy county. One lawmaker tells cnn the statement unestimated the possibility of wildfires and failed to plan for emergency issues with the government alert center. The governor has looked at a comprehensive review of the states response all of this developing as we are seeing more videos of harrowing escapes. We got to walk somewhere. Over there. By the beach. [ bleep ]. No, no, no not like this. Not like this. No. [ bleep ]. Oh, my gosh. I mean that family did eventually make it to an evacuation shelter, after taking refuge on rocks, by the ocean. Lets go now to cnns mike val
Much time, maybe around a year, 12 months, could be even less than that depending on whether they consider the gun to have been possessed for Sporting Purposes or collection, and i dont know if he could make a case for that or not, but, you know, were talking about probably somewhere in the 12month neighborhood i would think. Jennifer, please stay with us. We want to reset for our viewers if youre just joining us on cnn news central, an historic decision by the Department Of Justice. They have filed charges against the son of President Joe Biden, hunter biden, three different charges, two of them related to lying on statements in an effort to buy a firearm. The third charge for actually possessing that for imas a prohibited person. A reminder, the case being brought by Special Counsel daniel weiss is based on Hunter Bidens purchase of this weapon as he wrote in his form that he was not using narcotics and later in a biography wrote that he did. We have a team of reporters and analysts
jansing. israeli soldiers conducting a targeted raid searching the medical complex for hamas, something the idf calls an operational necessity, but it s one that sparked massive pushback from the u.n. and perhaps the strongest statement yesterday from the biden white house. how might what happened inside the hospital today change the face of this war? the victory in the house, a bipartisan group of lawmakers passing a stopgap bill and kicking it to the senate with just days to go before a possible government shutdown, but it is also just a band-aid on a gaping wound. so what will happen after the holidays? and throwing elbows, inside the nasty battles on the hill. with no one backing down, no one apologizing, and other members taking sides. plus, they haven t been face to face in a year, but that s going to change in just about an hour. the eyes of the world now on president biden and president xi jinping today. can anything be done to turn down the heat and find some l
today closing arguments underway in hunter biden s federal gun trial i ll after we learned that the president s son will not testify in the case, why did the defense decide not to put him on the stand? a verdict could come as soon as today, plus former president trump does yet another thing. no former president has done before meet with a probation officer it s a standard part of the process ahead of his sentencing. next it s month we ll talk about what comes next and happening now, a high-stakes meeting in israel, the us secretary of state s sitting down with israel s prime minister pushing for a ceasefire after idf forces rescue four hostages in gaza. an array that reportedly killed hundreds of palestinians were following these major development i ve been stories and many more all coming in right here to cnn news central we start with breaking news, closing arguments are now underway in the hunter biden trial after calling three witnesses to testify on friday, the def
trial is appropriate. that s remarkable, fred. a trial against the son of the sitting president of the united states and that incredibly unprecedented and the high stakes attached to it appears to be one of the leading reason that david weiss special counsel designation is appropriate at this time. it looks like they may be headed to a trial. this was going to be revolved in a plea deal with misdemeanors and probably no jail time. but at this point, fred, all bets are off. and we ll see how this goes. lots of uncertainty still. thanks so much. former federal prosecutor michael weiss sorry about that, michael zeldin, i m thinking about the case. back with me now, to discuss the developments. now the special counsel weiss has been investigating hunter biden since the beginning of 2019, after being appointed u.s. attorney for delaware by then president trump.